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Cambridge Writing Task 2 : Children and Paid Work

Submitted by jeffye on Wed, 08/21/2013 - 23:11

Cambridge Writing Task 2 : Children and Paid Work

In many countries children are engaged in some kind of paid work. Some people regard this as completely wrong, while others consider it as valuable work experience, important for learning and taking responsibility.

What are your opinions on this?

You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support our arguments with examples and relevant evidence.

OFFICIAL SAMPLE ESSAY OF CAMBRIDGE IELTS

The issue of children doing paid work is a complex and sensitive one. It is difficult to say who has

the right to judge whether children working is ‘wrong’ or ‘valuable’. Opinions will also differ as to

‘learning’ benefits; no doubt teachers and factory owner, for example, would have varying

concerns.

An important consideration is the kind of work undertaken. Young children doing arduous and

repetitive tasks on a factory production line, for example, are less likely to be ‘learning’ than older

children helping in an old people’s home. There are health and safety issues to be considered as

well. It is an unfortunate fact that many employers may prefer to use the services of children

simply to save money by paying them less than adults and it is this type of exploitation that should

be discouraged.

However, in many countries children work because their families need the additional income, no

matter how small. This was certainly the case in the past in many industrialized countries, and it is

very difficult to judge that it is wrong for children today to contribute to the family income in this

way.

Nevertheless, in better economic circumstances, few parents would choose to send their children

out to full-time paid work. If learning responsibilities and work experience are considered to be

important, then children can acquire these by having light, part-time paid work or even doing tasks

such as helping their parents around the family home, which are unpaid, the undoubtedly of value